Next JPL Mars rover gets funding for 2020 launch

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE - Thanks to the success of Curiosity, Jet Propulsion Laboratory earned the opportunity to launch a fresh mission to the Red Planet in 2020, officials announced Tuesday.

The announcement solidifies plans for the U.S. space program over the next decade after recent budget cuts had given space exploration an uncertain future.

"With this next mission, we're ensuring America remains the world leader in the exploration of the Red Planet, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.

The as-yet-unnamed mission will pave the way for human exploration of Mars in the '30s, Bolden said.

The new space exploration plan extends funding for Curiosity and JPL's older rover Opportunity. It also restores NASA's collaboration with the European Space Agency on the ExoMars rover, planned to launch in 2018.

"The Obama administration is committed to a robust Mars exploration program," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.

NASA's contribution to the European missions will include telecommunication radios and an astrobiology instrument.

Although NASA's budget could be squeezed by the federal "fiscal cliff" next year, the agency's new plan was specifically designed to fit within reduced funding.

The new rover figures to cost about $1.5 billion, one billion less than Curiosity.

"All of these things fit within the president's budget request for 2013," said NASA associate administrator John Grunsfeld, who announced the plans Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, applauded the plan and said he would push for an earlier launch date.

"While a 2020 launch would be favorable due to the alignment of Earth and Mars, a launch in 2018 would be even more advantageous as it would allow for an even greater payload to be launched to Mars," Schiff said in a statement Tuesday.

NASA did consider a 2018 launch, Grunsfeld said, but that would have entailed drastically scaling down the mission's scope.

A 2020 window is also "ambitious," Grunsfeld said, because of the time needed to develop instruments.

The planned rover will borrow Curiosity's basic architecture, spare parts and "seven minutes of terror" landing system, and likewise will be sent to a location that might have once harbored life.

The landing site could be one of the other four prime Mars locations considered for Curiosity, although the 2020 launch window affords access to more of Mars, including higher elevations, Grunsfeld said.

The rover's instrument payload has yet to be determined, but Grunsfeld cited a sample cache as a possibility, which would preserve Mars material to be brought back to Earth.

An instrument capable of detecting biological material is also possible.

"I think that would be a very exciting thing to do," Grunsfeld said.

NASA already had two other Mars missions lined up in the next few years: an orbiter called MAVEN will launch next year, and a drilling lander called InSight in 2016. The latter is part of NASA's low-cost Discovery program.

Non-Mars missions to icy moons and comets are excluded in NASA's new plans, but Grunsfeld said those ideas will stick around.

Recent proposals in the Discovery program included a robotic rover that could float on the seas of Saturn's moon Titan, and the Comet Hopper, which could land and take off again multiple times on a passing comet.

"We're still working very hard on icy-moon missions," Grunsfeld said.

While NASA is still funding Opportunity, active since 2004, the aging rover's time could be short.

"I don't think Opportunity will still be alive in 2020," Grunsfeld said. "If it is, we'll keep it going."